James William Moore (1905-1994) received a doctorate from the Law School (1935) and joined the faculty in 1938 after two years at the University of Chicago Law School. Moore was the leading bankruptcy law scholar of his generation. He edited the authoritative treatise in the field for decades, the multi-volume Collier on Bankruptcy (orig. pub.1898), beginning in 1938 when he assumed the position of the work’s Editor-in-chief at the time of the enactment of the Chandler Act, which was a major rehauling of the bankruptcy laws.

Moore’s other publications in the field include Moore’s Bankruptcy Manual (1939) and the casebook, Debtors’ and Creditors’ Rights: Cases and Materials, written with Vern Countryman, which was first published in 1947 and went through four editions by 1975.

Moore authored the leading treatise not only on bankruptcy law, but also on civil procedure, an unusual accomplishment. Along with Dean Charles E. Clark, Moore was one of the lead drafters of the new “trans-substantive” Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in the 1930s. Moore wrote extensive commentaries on the new rules, culminating in the definitive guide to the rules, the 34-volume Moore’s Federal Practice, which he personally updated well into the 1980s.